Welcome to Woodbury
by Ms. Violet Marks
Summary: When Joanna comes across the Governor and his men by chance, she reluctantly accepts his offer to join Woodbury's population. But nothing he says or does makes the unease in her stomach disappear. And even knowing that he's not what he seems, she's inexplicably drawn to him. Will this attraction be fatal? Or will she be able to save the Governor from descending into madness?


**Chapter I**

Joanna stared at the flames as they engulfed the cabin, fire dancing in her eyes, chasing the darkness away. She knew this day would come, when their meager group would dwindle down to just one, leaving her alone to fight off the infected on her own. It was sad, but she didn't have time to feel pity for herself or to mourn those that had fallen. As she shouldered her bag and placed her knife back in its sheath on her hip, she walked, leaving the last six months of memories behind her.

She walked south for nearly an hour before she found a decent place to rest, up on a high, thick branch amidst a cluster of smaller ones. At the base of the tree, she'd dispatched two infected, though she'd not seen or heard any others. Once she determined that she was alone, she pulled out her rope and secured herself to the tree so there wouldn't be any mishaps while she slept.

Gunfire was what woke her, jarring her awake and causing her heart to stammer in her chest ruthlessly. She wasn't sure what was going on, and it took her a moment to remember where she was and how she'd gotten there. For a split second, she'd forgotten about the new world altogether, but once reality settled back in, pushing away the half-awake dreams of her old life, she was instantly on her guard.

When she'd settled in for the night, she had no idea she was so close to a highway, but off in the distance, she could hear an engine coming closer, slowing down not far from the forest's edge. She quickly untied herself from the tree, inspecting the ground below for any strays, and made her way toward the clearing carefully, mindful of enemies both infected and human.

A truck slowed to a stop out on the highway, and three men jumped out, inspecting what looked to be a five car pileup. She watched as they shot a few infected, both in the vehicles and out, rooted through belongings, looking for supplies. Knowing she was low on food now that the cabin was gone, she cursed under her breath as she saw them come up with several handfuls of stuff, cans of food by the looks of it. Her mind berated her for not having gotten there first, for deciding to sleep the night before instead of clear a few hundred more feet of ground.

But that was short lived as she ducked behind a tree when one of the men looked toward the forest, stepping on a fallen stick and creating a racket. She cursed yet again, quietly, and slowly pulled her knife from its sheath, wary of what sort of people they may be. She'd encountered all sorts in the past year - the naïve, the ruthless, the perverse. She'd be damned if she'd fall into the wrong hands again, and even though she was outnumbered, she'd go down swinging if it came to that.

The sounds of the crunching leaves could be heard from the forest's edge, and Joanna didn't dare turn around, lest they see the movement. There were two infected shuffling toward her, though, and she knew that if these men didn't shoot them soon, she'd have to make a move. It'd out her, sure, but she didn't have much of a choice.

"Just a few stragglers," she heard one of the men say before retreating back to the road.

As she waited for the man to go, the two infected were closing on her, and she knew that if she didn't move then, she'd be a goner. Being small had its advantages - she was quick, easily concealed, required far less sustenance than someone twice her size. But she wasn't particularly strong, and with the hulking undead closing on her, she'd have no chance of getting them both before she was bitten if she didn't move right now.

With stealth in mind, she rushed the first one, plunging her blade into its skull before yanking it free and coming at the second one. But with the fallen leaves and branches all around, as well as their falling corpses, there was no way for her to be quiet. Her back was to the forest's edge as she heard several men rush into the trees, their weapons brandished, keeping a safe distance from her.

"Turn around," one of the men called.

"Fuck," she muttered under her breath, doing as he said, slowly. Her hands were in the air so she didn't find herself on the receiving end of any of their bullets, but she didn't part with her knife. She never parted with her knife.

"What are you doing out here?"

Joanna had to think quick. They didn't seem like the most friendly bunch and she wasn't sure she wanted to divulge her history to them. Then again, there was nothing for them to loot, nowhere in her past to go as it was all gone now. So what was the harm?

"Just looking for shelter," she replied simply.

A tall man came up behind them, a friendly smile on his face as he ordered his men to stand down. They reluctantly did so and relief washed over Joanna, but she knew better than to let her guard down so easily. She'd done that once before, rushing into the grateful care of the men who'd saved she and her sister. That hadn't ended well.

"Are you alone?" the tall man asked, the man that appeared to be their leader. He looked her up and down for a long moment, his eyes settling on the blade in her hand before looking back at her untrusting eyes, just in time to see her nod nearly imperceptibly.

"We have a town," he said. "Food, water, shelter, safety. We take in survivors all the time, provided you're not infected."

He waited for her reaction, but the sound of another walker caused her to turn her back to them, fingers tightening around the hilt of her knife. The moment she saw it, maybe twenty feet away, she noticed two more, limping toward them.

"Hold your fire," she heard the man say. "We don't want to attract any more."

So then, she figured she was on her own. But she was wrong. Another man stepped up beside her, the entire half of his right arm a mechanical contraption that displayed an impressively large blade. When he saw her eye it up, he gave her a cocky grin before advancing on the walkers without hesitation. Dividing and conquering, he took the one on the left, while she took the two to her right. And within the blink of an eye, they all dropped, leaving Joanna staring at the men one by one.

"You're not infected, are you?" the leader asked, picking up his conversation where it had left off just before their little interruption. The man with the blade for an arm walked back to his group, wiping the sludge from the sharp metal with his overshirt all the while. The nonchalant actions hit Joanna and sent her into a blank stare as her mind reeled. This was reality now.

"No," she finally said, breaking out of her daze. "I'm not infected."

The man nodded as he stared at Joanna, his men retreating slowly from the woods, leaving him to his business. In the distance, she saw them go back to looting the vehicles, leaving just she and their leader standing under the canopy to eye up one another.

"You're welcome to come with us," he said. "We're 70 strong, guards on every wall. You'd be safe."

Joanna felt a strange feeling when he said those words, but she couldn't figure out just what it was that didn't sit right with her. She and her group hadn't encountered hospitality in some time, and the reasons were understandable. In the world these days, people had to be careful about who they trusted. And Joanna wasn't sure if it was her wariness or her desperation for safety, for a place to sleep more than two restless hours at a time, that was more potent.

Despite the unease in the pit of her stomach, however, she left the woods with him, dread threatening to take over her as she watched each of the men pile into the truck one after the other. Eventually, it was only her standing next to the highway, the sound of walkers getting close. She turned and saw them, walking from the forest's edge toward her, slowly but surely. And she asked herself if she wanted to take her chances with these men, or stay out here, ever-fearful that one of these abominations was going to eat her for dinner. In the end, she let go of the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and climbed into the bed of the truck just as it was taking off, tears threatening to fall for a reason she couldn't understand.

_**A/N: Thank you for reading! Reviews and favorites are appreciated. Let me know what you think!**_


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